


Don’t look at me

by GrumpyTsundereShipper



Category: Naruto
Genre: ANBU Naruto, Badass Naruto, Cold Naruto, Council Bashing, M/M, Overworked, PTSD, Tired Naruto, secret genius Naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 17:56:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16897287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrumpyTsundereShipper/pseuds/GrumpyTsundereShipper
Summary: Given to the ANBU as a child Naruto has known nothing else. Until the Hokage decides to give him a chance.





	1. Chapter 1

The pale porcelain was as cool as it always was, the black body Armour gripped his sides heavily, weighing on his neutral coloured uniform. The Hokage office was just the same, the lecture was the same. 

“Fox I’ve told you you have to listen to your commander!” A pair of eyes slid lazily to where his current commander was standing, drinking in the body language. Tense. The eyes became lidded, the nonchalance was audible. 

“Yes Hokage-Sama.” His voice followed his eye’s lead, drawling out his words. The commander’s shoulders raised defensively, eyes glued to the back of the Hokage.

Sarutobi fell back into his chair, rubbing the darkened lines of stress that had ran down from his dark eyes, drawn out and filled with caramelised skin against the lighter honey of his age worn skin, paled by years of service. Sarutobi turned attentively towards the commander, nodding at him to assert himself.

 

The pools of stolen sky sharpened at the gesture. How childish, hiding behind dear old Hokage instead of facing his own subordinate and enforcing his own commanding. The smaller ANBU leaned back on his haunches, clicking his joints back, watching the two predatorily with an unhidden stare. 

“Fox, you will endanger the entire mission if you continue with this insubordination.” Weak, this is what inspired Fox’s insubordination. 

It was well known amongst the ANBU ranks that the Fox shinobi would answer anyone less competent than him, by Fox’s justification, insubordination was his way off signaling to the commander he or she is unfit to lead any team Fox is in. For others, it was a mark of shame on any higher ranked shinobi. This mark was commonly referred to as the ‘Fox spot’ and was impossible to remove, no matter your history, achievements or name. Only 3 commanders Naruto had worked under that did not get the spot, Weasel, Falcon and Monkey. Weasel, infamously the red eyed genocidal maniac, Falcon, a now retired war hero and Monkey was a strategic genius with many years of experience. 

Fox has a record of 24 commanders. 19 of them dead on active service, the others either transferred to other divisions like information gathering (torturing) and operations or retired. 

 

Now Fox had only been field active for 4 years but it was well known that his experience with every sector of the secret police was extensive. His education as he grew up was centered entirely around the workings of the ANBU, a rumour had been spread after his first mission that Fox had been running missions far before he had turned 9. 

But what else was to be expected when Fox had been practically bred and conditioned for this very purpose. 

 

Only 2 people wanted to be Fox’s commander, idealistic morons who believed that they could take on the world’s corruption with the Fox’s aid, and arrogant privileged clan kids who believed the world owed them something.

 

“Hokage-Sama.” This man fell into the latter. 

“I’ll get the transfer papers ready.” Naruto nodded appreciatively, taking an offered scroll from the Hokage dutifully. Lazy eyes touched lightly on his ex commander, whose mental breakdown was affecting him physically. 

 

25 commanders it seems. 

 

Naruto leaving the office took no notice of the unnaturally shadowed hallway, defying the angles of the sun’s rays through the many many windows. Selective blindness was Naruto’s finest quality. 

By the time the ex commander had exited the office, a orange spot can appeared on his visage. Even newbies would groan at the idea of being on his team. 

 

By the time the commander’s new status had been announced Naruto had gotten to his apartment to open his new orders. Now, for an full time high ranking ANBU officer home was more like the HQ, so his apartment was just as full as one would think it would. Naruto’s furniture consisted of one bed, one chair and a table. 

Uninterested in this, Naruto’s scroll was torn open. With porcelain encircling his tiredly lidded cerulean eyes, hugging the dark webbing that had carved itself into his scarred sun kissed skin under his eyes slid over the scroll’s contents.   
The body armour and concealed weapons’s pressure scalded his irreputably marred skin, sending spitting molten anger into his bloodstream. 

Genin... Sarutobi was making him... a Genin for the ‘unforseeable future’. 

 

A Genin. 

He didn’t even know exactly what that was!


	2. The most dangerous

So there Naruto stood, 2 weeks after the acceptance of the non negotiable mission in front of the Academy with a very obvious grimace.

 

He had had to walk to the Academy that morning. It had been years since he had shown his face in public for any length of time longer than 10 minutes and boy was it an experience. The villagers had been just as confused as he was that he was there, in the open. Despite Naruto’s sun kissed skin he spent the minimal amount of time in the sun that a shinobi of his rank could. He mainly used daylight to travel, usually to far away villages and destinations for missions. Sure, he had done many infiltration missions which meant he had to be out like a normal person, but really that only happened every few months. 

The scroll had detailed a vague excuse to Naruto’s... reassignment. It had pompously read out as ‘to investigate any corruption in the school system and guide the students onto the path of the will of fire.’ Ridiculous. 

 

So Naruto settled for arriving late, his face bare, nakedly baring the unnatural whiskers. Weightless clothing lacked the pinching body plates and angled weights to fit under bandages. What was worse was the whole HQ knew of his mission, which of course was the story behind the very orange jumpsuit. As Naruto had recently discovered, a few nameless ANBU had obtained the bad habit of spying on his meetings with Sarutobi. 

Why they did it, was beyond him, but because he had been in such a state of careless rage he had not placed up a barrier. Now the entire HQ was gossiping about it being the first time he had been ‘released’ from duty. 

There had been a party. A good luck party. Naruto had set the banner alight. That was where he had been given the orange jumpsuit, a lot of sniggering had accompanied the thoughtful present. The Fox couldn’t understand if this was some sort of inside joke but he accepted it silently anyways since he had no civilian clothing, his wardrobe was only his uniform. 

 

The gift had actually been given by one of his teammates, who given it on behalf on some other ANBU, who according to her were damn cowards.

 

Naruto approached the building, still wrapped in confusion to what exactly Genin did or... what they were. He vaguely knew that they were at the bottom of the shinobi hierarchy, but he had never seen that level before or met anyone there. 

It was strange enough to see others his own age or be close to them. 

 

Naruto had arrived at his assigned class, adjusting his jumpsuit awkwardly before entering, smile stretched, tearing at the corners of his lifeless mouth. He had perfected smiling in his infiltration missions. 

 

30 pairs of eyes settled on Naruto. “You’re late-“ Iruka, a soft and lovable teacher lost his breath mid sentence, unbelieving chestnut eyes furiously assessing the new student. He may have left the ANBU but he still had friends in the force who kept him updated on the born and bred officer. 

It was there... the professionally constrained raw intimidation that sketches out his visage. But the children didn’t recognize this.

“Class, this is Uzumaki Naruto, he will be joining us.” Iruka made no move to address the class, instead angling himself towards the blond, tearing his eyes away seemed like a sign of defeat. 

Oceans of ink met puddles of cerulean. 

Neither made any move, no twitch of a muscle and no effort to welcome one another into their lives. It was then when Iruka’s hostility broke, when Naruto’s hand reached up to the side of his face, going to grab something. Iruka followed the journey of the hand. It grasped at air, panic sparked in those calm eyes as his hand blindly patted the unmasked face, fueled by the fear of having lost something of importance. 

 

Iruka watched Naruto pull into himself as he re-evaluated his situation. No mask. No cool porcelain resting on his flaming cheeks. The teacher broke eye contact, unable to watch the torrent of emotions play over a child’s face. Such ugly emotions. 

 

“I am Uzumaki Naruto, I love food and the Hokage, I’m not a big fan of... arrogant people. Nice to meet you.” Naruto bowed shallowly, heading to the back next to a dark haired boy with porcelain skin, identical to the colour of his mask, Naruto noted. 

The class hadn’t noticed anything of what had just conspired, had only sat in silence waiting confusedly for the staring to end. So when Naruto settled next to him, Sasuke watched him discreetly from the corner of his eye. 

The new boy... was weird. Sasuke became more confident, openly staring at Naruto, taking in his side profile greedily. Blond hair. Undiluted sunny blond. Leaning in, the Uchiha had to check if it was genuine. Apparently that was too confident, even to a professional selectively blind person. Sharp blue filled the corners of Naruto’s eyes, assessing his curious seatmate. 

“Is there something you need?” He tried to sound as friendly as he could, he really did. But in Naruto’s defense he was a trained killer. Although as far as he knew, they could be too, he really didn’t know much about Genin. 

“Hn.” The Uchiha span away, irritated at Naruto’s suggestion that he had something he needed. 

“Naruto, who is the council made up off? Now there are over 50 members but I don’t need-“

“Akiko Hunoa, Azumo Reuni, Haruno, Danzo, Inoichi clan, Akumachi...” Naruto droned on for another 10 minutes, pronouncing the names with a personal familiarity, some with open distaste. 

Some of those idiots had overlapped missions on him. Of course he had completed them all, but the sentiment behind it was insulting. 

 

“Well uh yes that’s correct.” Iruka wasn’t the only one staring. 

So the year’s start wasn’t the best.


	3. Genin life

It had only been a few months into the school year and Naruto had a reputation for being confusing. One moment he was grinning and laughing, joking with the class and being the class clown, the next he would have dark bags under his glazed eyes and just sleep through lessons. As a student his attendance was abysmal but no one questioned it. Aside from Naruto’s seatmate, who of course waited for Naruto to arrive everyday, ready to fire jabbing insults. 

 

Naruto had been horrified to learn that most of Genin life was learning from textbooks and reciting oaths, but the council had sweetly decided to continue his duties as an ANBU officer. 

 

Which of course led to exam day. Naruto had to come in today, he had to, is what ran though Sasuke’s head. He had been fending off Sakura, Ino and other fan girls from Naruto’s seat for a year, like hell he was going to let Naruto the class enigma sit anywhere else for the last day. There had been a few anonymous letters demanding which team Naruto was going to be in, another few detailing the benefits of placing an Uchiha in the same team as an almost unknown person to the general public. 

Sasuke had been making inquiries about him. The sunkissed blond with whiskers. Uzumaki Naruto, no middle name. Well, of course an Uchiha had to unravel the mystery of Naruto, no one else had the standing to deserve him....... It, not him, it. Strange enough whenever he asks people about Naruto they either clam up or say he hasn’t been seen in years, that he used to be a well recognized local. 

So Sasuke sat and waited. An hour late. Iruka didn’t look surprised. The class hadn’t notice Naruto’s absence, they never do. Swift knocking cut the chatter cleanly, authority rang as clearly as the knocks. 

The old Academy door didn’t seem prepared for the masked entrance, it’s hinged squeaked dangerously, mimicking Sakura’s ugly screech at the sight of Uzumaki Naruto. There, on the masked man’s arm, Naruto leaned, dried blood still tracked down his chin, painting his lips a pretty red, blossoming from the inside of his mouth, the petals of blood that had travelled further stained his slender neck. 

The orange jumpsuit was now strips of unidentifiable material. The orange had been overthrown for a more earthy shade of fashion, what many ANBU called, the mud trend. Naruto released the ANBU and disjointedly stalked to his seat. 

Don’t look at me. 

Sasuke mindlessly tracked Naruto’s journey to his seat, his raven eyes blankly trying to process Naruto’s state. 

 

Fox however was simultaneously cursing the council and a snake Sannin. The council had double booked him, two lone missions, one was the disposal of an S Class mercenary and the other was recon on the snake. Naturally the snake had laid a trap for Naruto after he had received an anonymous tip. Explosive tags, always a favourite. 

 

The sound of tapping drew Sasuke’s eyes from Naruto’s face, to his leg. A pool had started at Naruto’s feet. The colour red was slopping from an carelessly bandaged wound beneath Naruto’s jumpsuit. The bandages no longer held any sign of their former colour. 

 

A shaky pale hand went to touch the bandages, daring himself to believe they were just for show. A tanned hand snatched the wrist, coupling it soon with a look. 

Don’t touch me. 

Naruto viciously tightened the loose bandages, taking a minute to scoop up more from his pocket only to find them in the same useless condition. 

A molten streak of anger shot through the ‘last’ Uchiha. Thousands of questions, but one pushed dominant. Who could dare hurt his Naruto?

His as in his mystery to solve... obviously. The fact Naruto didn’t seem too bothered by the excessive bleeding didn’t help Sasuke’s nerves.

 

The physical exam waits for no one.


	4. Examinations and answers

Kunai throwing. 

“Sasuke-kuuuuun! Beat them all!” It seems she has forgotten she’s a competitor as well. Sakura, the loudest ninja Naruto had ever known, also the most clingy. She louder she was the more she reminded him of an old colleague in the torture department.  
Sasuke landed 8/10 expertly, gaining a loud round of applause from his suck-up classmates. But one of them didn’t clap.

Sasuke had been staring at Naruto so frequently that the blond ninja is no longer surprised to feel those dark orbs following him. Today it was more intense, strange. Sure, he was bleeding but it wasn’t like this was even close to his worst state. Alternatively if Sasuke had known that he probably would’ve died at the tender age of 15.

“Naruto, you go next.”

The Uchiha was conflicted whether or not to confront Naruto about not performing -

“10/10 Uzumaki Naruto.” Naruto hadn’t got up. He had just stretched his arms from where he was sat against a tree and curved their projectory into the target. Silence followed. 

 

The other contestants went up and performed average 4/10. 

This was the first time Naruto truly saw what Genin were, what their skill level was meant to be. Fear nestled in his stomach at the idea of just how different he was to people his own age.

The Taijutsu commenced, pitting Ino and Sakura against each other. The two girls had screamed bloody murder before ruthlessly tugging hair, throwing fists and bearing talons. Even Sasuke had to step back from the match, not once removing his attention from his capable blond. 

“Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto.” Wordlessly Naruto obeyed, heaving himself against the tree and lurching towards the ring. Sasuke lunged at Naruto’s drooping shoulder which nearly took Naruto with it. Moments later to Naruto’s utter shock, Sasuke had essentially taken his weight. Sasuke was glowing, under his Uchiha façade naturally it would not do to show emotion like this, that Naruto was even touching him never mind the majority of his body. 

They reached the ring. “Dobe don’t do this.” The blood trail should have discouraged the shorter one. But Naruto didn’t understand the concern behind this, instead believing more malicious intentions behind Sasuke’s warning and so ignored the pain and lowered himself into an easy position. 

 

That position was not Academy Taijutsu, even the other students could see that. This was just chalked up to another mystery of Uzumaki Naruto but Shikamaru identified it immediately. For him everything clicked into place, for Iruka he felt physical pain watching a child adopt a famous ANBU pose so naturally. 

Now was not the time to worry about my rival, Sasuke chastised himself, falling into the Academy position, not failing to register the difference between them. 

 

The fight had to begin.


End file.
